Monday afternoon

We had a delicious dinner last night at Fin’s – a southern Portuguese dish – cataplana- local seafood and potatoes poached in a saffron and star anise broth. We shared a lemon myrtle and native finger lime pannacotta and a chocolate dessert. The lemon myrtle taste was good. According to his recipe book, this chef uses lemon myrtle a lot – both as a substitute for lemongrass in savoury dishes and lemon in sweet. I did not know what a finger lime is. Apparently it looks like a finger and can be used in different ways. In the pannacotta we had, the insides of the lime were scrapped out and made into a syrup. It looked like pink fish roe but tasted a bit tart and sweet. It was lovely.

I have one more day before I go back to Brisbane. I am not buying any more time on the internet here.

Antidote to the Dinasaur – Friday evening

I decided, mid afternoon, that I wanted to do something different for dinner. Yesterday, at Salt, I checked out all the restaurants and made a booking for Sunday night when my son will be here, at Fin’s. This restaurant has several hats and a very good reputation. They have a vaguely Spanish influence at the moment. They open for a drink and tapas as well as just for a meal and they had a list of about 6 Spanish sherries up on a board. Last Thursday I had a glass of good Spanish sherry at a friends place and have been reminded how John and I often drank dry sherry in the 70’s and how in 2002 we spent 2 weeks in the south of Spain sampling sherries. Anyway, I thought I would go there. I drove to Salt at 5.30, parked, and walked slowly along the row of shops. I almost lost my nerve, and almost decided to have a gelato instead but, as I was walking past Fin’s for the second time, the lady who was getting Fin’s ready caught my eye and asked if she could help. We talked about sherry a bit, and she suggested the sashimi and then she said ‘sit down’ indicating the lounge seating area rather than one of the bar stooly things. I said – but there is one of me and this area seats a large group- or something to that effect. Her response was – they are not here and you are so you might as well be comfortable. So I spent a very enjoyable ¾ hour sipping , very slowly, my surprisingly large glass of delicious sherry and eating my delicious sashimi. The chef has written a cookbook and there was a copy of that available for browsing , which I did. I felt like I belonged – I had every right to be there - and I did not have leprosy, just no companion.

Finagal

The highlight of Saturday was my discovery of the Sheoak Shack at Fingal – about5km(as the crow flies) north of here. It is a shack that has been extended with the aid of temporary ( but permanent ) awnings , assorted tables, mismatched colourful chairs, hammocks, serving a range of different reasonably priced food and drinks. It has a vaguely Asian ( paper lanterns, sate sauce smells,) and South American ( large cacti, tables made from large slabs of timber) feel. There were assorted people from modern day hippies to a few people like me to young families. Several dogs with their owners. I just had coffee then but went back with following day with my son for lunch.